WHEN Dr C.R. Elsy did her Ph.D. it was in breeding rice plant varieties. But when she retired this month as a professor of the Kerala Agricultural University (KAU), her legacy will be her unique initiative spanning a decade or so to get farmers their intellectual property rights over their crops.
Thanks to her sense of mission, a host of crops in Kerala have received Geographical Indication or GI status which means they are unique in the world. To achieve this Dr Elsy has worked with farmers in their fields, hand-held them through the legal process. . .